


Intriguing

by gardnerhill



Series: A Study In Crimson [10]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Community: watsons_woes, Gen, Pirates, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 11:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1980894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not all the battles are fought with cutlass and cannon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intriguing

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2014 July Watson’s Woes Prompt #18, brought to you by [**med_cat**](http://med-cat.livejournal.com/): **Honored With a Star**. A character earns or is awarded some honor. What the award is, and why, is of course up to you - as is the recipient.
> 
> This story takes place in my "A Study in Crimson" pirate AU.

> **ADMIRAL LIST**
> 
> MORIARTY, J., Capt., after striking decisive blow in Pt Roy. against pirate vessel _Octavius_ , tracking traitor & mutineer John Watson to rogue priv’r _Baker_ and uncovering treason against the Crown by priv’r Shear-Lock, capt. of same; wounded in brutal assault by _Baker_ pirates led by Shear-Lock.

* * *

 

Admiral Holmes bowed his head over the newspaper, with the lists of promotions, heedless of the sweat-trickle down his neck in the damned Madagascar heat.

_Moriarty._

That asp of a Navy captain! Ambitious, cunning, cruel, green to the gills with jealous rage at Holmes’ own success at both adding to the royal coffers and in quelling the worst of the pirate-lice that infested the Caribbean routes via his pet privateer _Baker._ Moriarty had gained a major triumph, and turned the tables against _Baker_ and Holmes in one.

So. His younger brother had had a vulnerable spot after all – merely reading the promotion list and recalling his brothers’ dispatches, he knew exactly what “Jack” meant to “Shear-Lock” – and that reptile had used it the moment it had been revealed.

The list was months old, of course – which meant that that foul little lickspittle, armed not only with his new title but all the influence of a recent victory – was well on his way to amassing the forces needed to press his assault. The next dispatch would no doubt contain orders for Admiral Holmes to present himself to the court and take full accounting before the Board for his privateer’s attack on a Royal Navy vessel and captain. The one good thing was that no one yet had insisted that the patrons of such rogue privateers join their lackeys on the gallows and the iron cages over the bay.

But there was nothing he could do to protect Shear-Lock now – not with the word Traitor before his name. The man was as good as hanged already.

_A friend of your heart at last, younger brother. This is the price you pay._

“Sir?”

With the ease of practise, as a man who trod the courts of Their Majesties William and Mary as easily as he bestrode the deck of his flagship _Victoria_ , the Admiral mastered his anger and turned it into ice. He looked up from the newspaper to see the ramrod-straight sailor who’d rowed over from the _Georgiana_ with the letters and dispatches for the Victorias.

Mycroft Holmes forced a smile. “No, no ill news, Mr. Jones, only the list. But it’s always unpleasant to read of some dastard gaining an honour he does not deserve. You may go and give the men their letters from home.”


End file.
